I have sold my husband on vinegar and it's many wonders and he thought he would put it to the test to try to remove the hard water from the spouts. Here they are in all their gross glory.....
He put the vinegar into a normal drinking glass, and stuck it in the microwave until it was boiling.
One he pulled it out of the microwave, he dropped all the parts in, and it was like Alka Selzer, the hard water started to bubble right off! Look at how amazing the difference is. Clean and shiny, good as new.
As you can see the water is now flowing freely without any crazy splashing going on.
Oh vinegar how I love you!
I have been trying to do this a lot with my portions lately. Especially snacks. I eat my snacks out of small ramekins (usually around the 6 oz size). It really works well. My servings are usually less than 200 calories. Small is better.
For the buddies, I do a cup of powdered sugar on the bottom of the bag, and the other cup on the top, it helps to evenly distribute a little better.
The key is to leave a bit of air in the bag to shake everything around, shake it up good! My son likes to help me with this part, even at 15 months, he does a good job!
Here is the proof, perfect muddy buddies.
These ones are actually lemon buddies, YUM! I found this recipe via Pinterest as well, I am addicted it is true! Now I LOVE LOVE LOVE lemon, I am talking if my dentist hadn't forbid me from eating lemons, I would eat them like an orange, I love them that much. That said, this recipe needed a tiny bit more lemon than the recipe called for. So to remedy my lemon addiction, I added a little bit more lemon juice on the top of the buddies after they were done. These are an amazing, yummy summer time treat! Don't worry I still love the good ol' regular ones too. You can find the lemon buddy recipe in its entirety HERE.
They really work well when things need a little grease, for pizza and cakes especially, I find they work better than using Pam. They have just the perfect amount of butter residue.
I know I am a total weirdo!?! Do you have any crazy quirks? PLEASE share so I know I am not alone, or maybe I am?
The other day we bought a giant 2 gallon box of white vinegar from Costco and it listed a bunch of uses for vinegar. I am going to post my favorite 10, there are far more uses than this though!
I have the caddy's far out of reach, up high in my laundry closet, then I just grab the caddy I need for the room I am going to clean. Easy and convenient.
We are trying to move toward more natural, non chemical cleaners in our house, and are slowing phasing out buying new cleaners at the store. Now if only spring would hurry up and get here, but this weekend we got another few inches of snow. :(
The snack size bags are key, the smaller they are the less you put in them. I buy A LOT of snack bags. I come home, dump out the bag, and read what the serving size is. In the case of my dried fruit it is 1/3 cup. I then scoop a portion into the bag and that is it. The rule also is, ONE bag, you can't grab more than one for a snack!
Some of you may be thinking "UGH, that would take so much time, I just don't have the time to do that." I think of it a little differently though, I can either spend the time portioning out my food so I don't over eat, OR, I can spend the time on the treadmill. I really do enjoy exercise, but let's be honest, I would rather spend 45 minutes vs. an hour. I also use this trick to create my own 100 calorie packs, the ones in the store are WAY overpriced. It has worked well in my house, and I am feeling good about making healthier choice in other ways like hormone free milk & eggs, more organic foods, and less sugar. Same concept here, eating this way does cost a bit more, but I can pay more now, or with medical bills later in life.
Since I store my bags my own way (you can read about that here), I decided to use my plastic bag holder for my kitchen rags instead. It has worked really well, and here are the reasons I love it. First, it is open, so the rags can dry out fully, which makes them less likely to smell. Sorry my picture is so ugly, the lighting in the laundry closet is horrible.
Second, it hangs on my wall until it is full and then I can just pull it off and dump the rags directly into the washing machine. So simple.
I always wash my kitchen rags with either vinegar or baking soda (not together though!) to help get rid of that funky smell. I have found though kitchen rags just don't have a super long life, so I buy the cheap ones and rotate every couple months. What do you do with your kitchen rags??
Ahh, much better for everything to have a place, rather than just thrown under there.
Lastly, to organize all your bathroom supplies, I read this trick in a magazine. I *think* it was Better Homes & Gardens, but I can't remember it was a few years ago. You put a lazy susan underneath your sink. That way everything is easily accessible with one simple turn and there are no explosions when you open up the cabinet. Make sure you face everything with the label facing out, so you (or your husband) can easily find what you are looking for without having to dig. This has worked really well, and until recently, I did it under every sink with cleaning supplies, etc. Now I have a mobile baby, so I have come up with a safer solution. We have a child lock on our bathroom door, so I am not too worried about these.
What are your solutions for under the bathroom sink?
There is even a little room on the side to put that extra one or two things. Call me crazy, but I love to organize!
Fall brings cooler temperatures and growing up in the desert; I have a pretty low tolerance when it comes to cold. Once November hits, I break out all my blankets and quilts, so that I can bundle up without having to break the bank with our heating bill. Blankets can be a tricky thing to store, but you don’t want to have them strewn about your house either.
Baskets are the perfect way to store blankets in plain sight, so they are readily available for use. I have a blanket basket in my family room for all of my quilts and available for the sofa bed when guests are staying (sorry there is no photo; my family room is not currently in a photo worthy state). I also have one in my son’s room, since you tend to need a lot of blankets with a baby. Even if the blankets are just thrown in, it still looks nicer than having them strewn about.
Once you are at the end, tuck the end tab into the folds, and you have your bag in a small triangle. I store them in one of the Tupperware containers that I don't use (remember THIS?) and put them in my drawer with all my other bags. Then my drawer stays tidy!
Easy to use and easy on the eyes!
I decided a few months ago it was time to tackle my medicine cupboard. I was sick of all the bottles falling out, and I really needed to go through it and dispose of expired medication. While doing this I kept thinking to myself “there has to be a good way to organize this”. I was also in an organizing mood, so I was going through a few of the cupboards in my kitchen. If you anything like me you have oodles of Tupperware. I never am using all of it at once, and I have found that there are certain sizes I rarely use. I then decided that Tupperware would be the perfect way to organize my medications. I divided up the medications by category and then found the Tupperware that would work best, which also is the sizes I rarely use. I then used a dry erase marker to label the outside of each container for easy finding when you need it. The best part is I can always change the label by simply wiping it off. I no longer brace myself for a bottle eruption when I open that cupboard and I think it looks very neat and tidy.
